Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 464
WILLIAM G. MEFFERD

William G. MEFFERD. Of the old settlers who came to Harrison County prior to 1851, there are at present but few still living in the county. The man whose name heads this sketch settled in Oak Grove, in Jefferson Township, where he farmed until 1853, then moved to Douglas Township, locating on section 29, where he has lived every since. At the time he entered the township there was but one other settler in the territory, a man named PIERSE, who left in May of the same year, going to Utah. He sold his claim to Matthew HALL, who was the next settler in Douglas Township

In the fall of 1853 there were but four votes reported from Douglas Township. Mr. MEFFERD (or rather his father, George MEFFERD) did the first improving of any consequence in the township. The first year they broke about twenty-five acres. They did not have much to work with, and the ox-team process was a slow one. They lived in a log house and everything was of the pioneer order. The house still stands with a few alterations and is used by the father as a residence, but one visiting the spot today would scarcely imagine that this was the pioneer abode of the MEFFERD'S.

At that time their nearest trading-point was Council Bluffs, then known as Kanesville.

Among the early day associations of Mr. MEFFERD'S place was the first church service held in Douglas Township, which was several years after they came into the place.

. The first school taught in the township was taught on the subscription plan, and the school was held at George MEFFERD'S and taught by Nathaniel MEFFERD, in the winter of 1855-56.

Our subject was born in Muhlenberg County, Ky., May 30, 1832, and he remained there until 1847, when he accompanied his parents to Butler County, and remained there until 1850, when they emigrated to Western Iowa with ox-teams, the party being made up of eight families, including his grandfather, John HUNT, together with his sons and sons-in-laws. They stopped in Pottawattamie County the first month and then came to Harrison County.

Mr. MEFFERD was united in marriage in Harrison County, September 5, 1854, to Martha C. LESLIE, by whom six children were born--Nancy E., born June22, 1855; George W., December 30, 1856; Andrew J., July 17, 1858; Amanda C., October 24, 1860; Mary R., July 28, 1862; William H., March 24, 1865.

George W., died in 1861; W. H. died in infancy, in 1865; Mary R., died October 28, 1867. Martha C. (LESLIE) MEFFERD died in Harrison County, June 1, 1881, and Mr. MEFFERD was again married to Mrs. Martha J. REYNOLDS, in Harlan, Shelby County, Iowa, March 23, 1890. This lady was the daughter of Jacob and Sarah WHITINGER, born in Wayne County, Iowa, July 5, 1838, and in 1854 the parents became pioneers in Dallas County, Iowa, remaining there until the autumn of 1855 when they removed to Denison, Crawford County Iowa, and engaged in the hotel business, being the first to conduct a hotel in that place.

She was married in Dallas County to Frank REYNOLDS, moving to Denison in the fall of 1856 and living there until 1860, when they removed to Gallands Grove, in Shelby County and were there about three years, and then went to Davis County, and after one year to VanBuren County, remaining there five years and then returning to Shelby County, and remaining there until 1879 and then went to Chicago, where Mr. REYNOLDS died January 21, 1880. Mrs. REYNOLDS then came back to Shelby County, where she remained until married to Mr. MEFFERD. Mr. and Mrs. REYNOLDS were the parents of six children---Ida L., Oscar, infants, (twins), Edwin A. and Carl.

Mr. and Mrs. MEFFERD are both members of the Latter day Saints church, the wife having been a member since February, 1861, and her husband since October 6, 1881.

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